Monday, 21 December 2015

1981: GIRL ISSUE 1 (IPC)

From February 1981: the first issue of IPC's somewhat (in retrospect) familiar looking new weekly: GIRL.

I stumbled across this recently in a secondhand magazine store and although I initially dismissed it, I was tempted enough to look inside and was surprised to see it really was the prototype for the relaunch of the EAGLE a year later,

The tone is the typical prepubescent chumminess ("Your very best friend") but the style, features and - most importantly - the photo-stories that defined the EAGLE's first (and, for me, best) eighteen months (give or take) are all piloted here.

The original GIRL, subtitled "Sister paper to Eagle", was launched in November 1951 by Hilton Press and survived various corporate takeovers to end in the care of IPC. The conglomerate was streamlining its acquisitions and folded GIRL in October 1964.

SLOW ROBOT

Welcome to STARLOGGED!
It's a repository, and celebration, of Geek Media (mostly print) from the 'Star Age': that pre-millennial period between, roughly, 1972 (the opening of Marvel UK) and 1999 (the release of The Phantom Menace... and the end of innocence). But, of course, we'll bend the rules when we want to.
I only reproduce long out-of-print items for historical reference. I don't include anything that's currently in-print, is likely to be reprinted or otherwise commercially exploited by the copyright holder.
Comments and contributions are most welcome.